WRIGHTSTOWN – Coach Bob Rickards and the defending champion Notre Dame Tritons are headed back to the WIAA Division 3 girls soccer state tournament after edging Xavier 2-1 with a goal in the final minute in Saturday’s sectional final game.

Senior Izzy Kellner scored her second goal of the day as the Tritons found the back of the net at the 89:02 mark in coach Rickards’ final season with the team.

“It’s our coach’s last season, so we said, ‘We play for each other, we play for the seniors, and we really just dedicate this game to coach Bob,’ ” Kellner said. “That was kind of the mentality. I was really tired and I just had to push through it and win it for coach Bob.”

Kellner scored on an assist from junior Emily Lin.

“My teammates worked so hard just to get the ball down there and I couldn’t have finished on that if it wasn’t for Emily Lin’s amazing shot in the first part,” Kellner said. “Honestly, it’s all about the team and we’re going to state again together, which is really exciting.”

This is Rickards’ 15th season with the Tritons after he was hired by Notre Dame as its boys and girls soccer coach in January 2005, after leading both teams at Ashwaubenon for five seasons.

“It’s an extremely tough season,” Rickards said. “We graduated nine seniors and only returned two starters. We lost 50% of our goal production from last year. We start a freshman, two sophomores and a junior in the back, but I think it shows that the kids stuck with the program all year long. We didn’t quit and we had some tough games and we got beat up just a little bit, but they stuck with the plan and I thought we controlled a lot of the play today, so I’m happy with how they played.”

Notre Dame struck first early in the second half as Kellner scored at the 51:11 mark.

“Jenna Cuene had that incredible cross,” Kellner said. “We just kept on pounding it down the sidelines. We knew that if we just played our game and stuck to a possession, it would eventually turn out well for us and it did.”

“It’s very special,” Rickards added. “It shows two seniors not wanting to give up, just continue to work all the way until the 90th minute, until they hear that whistle. They didn’t want to let the dream go, so I credit both of them, to Jenna for making the pass and Izzy for just burying the ball. That’s her third goal in two games, so she’s really been playing well lately.”

Less than 20 seconds later, Xavier answered back as junior Rylee Sammons scored at the 51:30 mark.

“One of the worst times to be scored on, or what happens a lot, is you get scored on right after you score because you relax just a little bit,” Rickards said. “I think they just got caught up in the moment and didn’t pay attention to what was going on on the field and Xavier came back and put a nice goal on.”

Notre Dame also beat Xavier 3-2 in April.

“I know that they knew that we, at that time, weren’t very good at corners, so first half they did a lot of work trying to get us to give up corners,” Xavier coach John Meyer said. “That’s something that we adjusted as the season progressed. They just had a nice offensive plan when they came out in the second half and, quite frankly, I’m not sure that we could have went two overtimes to try to figure out and go to PKs because we played hard.”

With the win Saturday, Rickards has led Notre Dame to a sectional final game or the state tournament in nine straight seasons.

“When we went over to the sidelines, whether it was the water breaks or because of injuries, we’d always say, ‘This could be Bob’s last game. This is his last season,’ ” Kellner said. “Everything that we do, no matter how tired we are, we have to play for coach Bob and that’s what led us to keep pushing until the last minute.”

Notre Dame (13-6-3) was given the No. 3 seed for the state tournament and will play No. 2 seed Edgewood (17-2-2) in a Division 3 semifinal at Uihlein Soccer Park at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

“We were really excited to try and go back to state this year because we had a taste last year,” Kellner said. “That was one of my most incredible experiences that I’ve ever had. I think just sharing that experience with the younger girls who are coming onto the team and I think everyone’s on the same page right now with how much that means to us to be able to go back and that’s something that the girls that couldn’t be there last year just want to experience, too. I think we’re all really excited to have this opportunity again and love playing together as a team. Just that we get to do that for at least one more game is really what matters.”

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